What Do The Cigarette Girl, Shopgirl And A Random Diary From Ebay Have In Common?

Despite a variety of good reviews, I avoided Shopgirl by Steve Martin for a long time. I avoided it not because I thought Steve Martin couldn’t write a novella, but because it seemed a little unfair that he was a great comedian and a great serious writer.

But, eventually, I picked it up and it is a terrific read (short, to the point and observational). What I liked best about it was the way that Los Angeles is evoked. In that sense, it was super similar to The Cigarette Girl by Carol Wolper, which was also excellent.

What about the diary? Well, on eBay there is a brisk trade in other people’s diaries (true story) and I bought one once. It was written by a woman living in LA in the 30s and I have to say that the LA she describes produces some of the same images (albeit 30s style) as both Martin and Wolper.